He Is Not Here!

Fr. John Breck

It is around eleven p.m. on the Saturday night of Holy Pascha: "Easter" in Orthodox tradition. The
faithful gather quietly in the darkened church, while a reader chants passages from the Book of
Acts. Shortly before midnight the priest pronounces the blessing to begin the brief office of
Nocturnes. At the prescribed moment, he exits the altar for the center of the nave and lifts up the
epitaphios, the image of Christ asleep in the tomb, placed there for the people's veneration at the
vesperal service of Holy Friday. Returning with it to the altar, the priest concludes Nocturnes
while the faithful extinguish every lamp and every candle in the church.

In the darkness, the priest emerges once again, bearing a single lighted taper. Its flame is passed
from person to person, until the entire edifice, like the cosmos at its creation, is filled with
new light. Then he and the choir begin to intone the majestic hymn: "Thy resurrection, O Christ our
Savior, the angels in heaven sing ... ." A procession follows, during which the people, led by priest
and choir, circle the church three times, proclaiming the resurrection to the world. As the crowd
gathers before the closed church doors, the priest reads the account of Christ's resurrection from
among the dead, taken from the Gospel of St Mark.

The focus in this passage (Mk 16:1-8) is on the Empty Tomb and the angel's declaration to the
women, "He is risen, he is not here!" In the experience of these women, the first witnesses to
Jesus' resurrection, this is the epitome of "Good News." For nearly three years they journeyed with
Jesus and his small band of disciples. They welcomed him into their homes, prepared meals for him,
and in various ways ministered to him and to those who accompanied him. When he was finally
arrested, they stood by at a distance, witnessing the abuse heaped upon him, cringing at Peter's
outspoken denial of him, and lamenting the injustice done to this man they knew to be righteous and
holy: the son of Mary, but also the Son of God.

Once his sentence was passed, these women looked on as he was brutally beaten, then bound and led out of the city to be crucified. They had seen other men tortured and killed in this way ­ a
typical Roman execution, whose torment was reserved for political prisoners, murderers and others
condemned as traitors or dangerous rabble. They had heard the screams and watched, fascinated and
horrified, while crucified men writhed on the makeshift crosses, trying desperately to breathe as
their strength gradually ebbed away. They, like so many onlookers in the days of Roman occupation,
had seen what it is to die a slow and agonizing death on a cross: death brought on by asphyxiation,
as the victim lost the strength to hold himself upright. Finally, his head fell forward, cutting
off his airway, and he gave up his last breath. Crucifixion was an unimaginably cruel means of
execution. These women knew that from their own experience, because so many condemned men had been killed that way outside the walls of Jerusalem. Now it was Jesus' turn to undergo the same torture
and endure the same unspeakable suffering.

As Jesus hung on the cross, attempting desperately to lift his head and draw air into his aching
lungs, the women watched and waited. His disciples, except for the youngest, had scattered, afraid
his fate would become their own. The women nevertheless remained faithful. They kept vigil
throughout the afternoon, weeping in despair over the cruelty and injustice this innocent man was
forced to endure. Once the end finally came, they and others pulled the nails from his wasted flesh
and took his corpse down from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea, and perhaps the disciple John,
carried Jesus' lifeless body to Joseph's new tomb, hewn out of the rock. Because the Sabbath was
drawing near, they had to leave the body before they could complete the burial rite. A great stone
was rolled in front of the entrance to the tomb, and the men returned to their homes. The women,
though, saw just where he was buried, and, although obliged to return home as well, they continued
to keep vigil.

Very early on the day following the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene and other women returned to the tomb, bearing spices in order to prepare the body according to Jewish practice. They carried with them
myrrh, a fitting fulfillment of the prophetic gesture made by the Magi at Jesus' birth. Surprised
that the stone at the mouth of the tomb had been rolled away, they entered, only to find the empty
shroud and the "young man," the angelic witness.

"He is risen," the young man announced, "He is not here."

Can angels be mistaken? If there is one truth that stands out above every other in the gospel
message, it is this: that in the darkness of that tomb, and of every tomb, Christ the Giver of Life
is present. "You seek Jesus of Nazareth," the angel declared. Then he added the qualification so
often obscured by our translations: "the Crucified One. He is not here ... ." Crucified and risen;
risen yet forever crucified, bearing in his body the condemnation and death of all those who, like
the women, remain faithful to him and seek his face, his abiding presence.

As the Risen One, we declare with the angel, Jesus was "not there." As the Crucified One, however, he is and remains in the darkness of the tomb, in the abyss of Sheol, reaching out his hands to seize, to embrace, and to raise up with himself both the living and the dead. Although risen and
glorified, Jesus is nonetheless present in that tomb. And he will remain there, so long as we are
there ourselves.

The Very Rev. John Breck was Professor of New Testament and Ethics at St. Vladimir's Seminary from 1984-1996. He is presently Professor of Biblical Interpretation and Ethics at St. Sergius Theological Institute, Paris, France and with his wife Lynn he directs the St. Silouan Retreat near Charleston, SC.

Read the entire article on the Orthodox Church in America website (new window will open). Reprinted with permission of the author.